Hope You Had a Restful Weekend, Here's a Bunch of Stressful Trump News

Well, Memorial Day weekend is over and so is President Trump's Reluctant World Tour. But the good news just keeps rolling in. A report from Belgian newspaper Le Soir, picked up by ThinkProgress, detailed that nation's dealings with the president when he visited its capital, Brussels—which he called a "hellhole" during the campaign. Yes, Trump enjoyed the chocolate, but he also demonstrated that a large part of his knowledge and opinions about the European Union comes solely from his experience building golf courses. From Le Soir:

He makes a lot of reference to his personal journey. He explains, for example, the functioning of Europe on the basis of his difficulties in doing business in Ireland . Another source goes on to say: "Every time we talk about a country , it remembers the things it has done. The Scotland? He said he had opened a club. Ireland? He said it took him two and a half years to get a license and that did not give him a very good image of the European Union. One feels that he wants a system where everything can be realized very quickly and without formalities.

Well at least he knows where the bunkers are. And, credit where it's due, Belgian officials present also told Le Soir Trump was "very laid back, cordial, taking time...not at all tense," and "glad to be there, interested in his interlocutors, in the country."

Elsewhere in international affairs, a new report on how the president treats his staff had an interesting tidbit about U.N. Ambassador Nicki Haley. According to The Washington Post, Trump once "jokingly" did the following at a meeting of ambassadors from the United Nations Security Council—the U.N.'s most powerful sub-committee featuring Russia, China, Britain, France, and others:

More recently, during a lunch with ambassadors from countries on the U.N. Security Council, Trump jokingly polled those in the room on whether they thought U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, seated directly to his right, was doing a good job. "How do you all like Nikki? " he asked, as she looked on. "Otherwise, she can easily be replaced."

What a charming way to speak about an employee while they're sitting next to you. But Haley gets off easy, the report continues. Apparently, the president refers to his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, as "Reince-y," which other aides and political rivals "recount with gleeful relish." The president also continually ribs Reince-y about his decision to call for Trump to drop out of the presidential race after the Access Hollywood tape leaked. Haha, remember when you said I should stop running for president after I bragged about groping women without their permission?

One person who distinguished himself in Trump's eyes following the Mobile Locker Room episode was Sean Spicer, then of the Republican National Committee. He demurred on a question about whether what Trump bragged about constituted sexual assault, then appeared to lie about demurring. Anyway, that and everything else Spicer is forced to say on a daily basis wasn't enough to get the press secretary, a devout Catholic, on the plane to Rome to meet the Pope—a "bucket-list dream" according to The Washington Post. Trump left him at home, another instance of how, in the Post's assessment, "enduring public humiliation has become a defining characteristic of Spicer's tenure in the White House." If Reince-y and Spicer's experiences are anything to go on, it doesn't seem to matter what you do.

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And finally, we learned a little bit from the intelligence world. According to CNN, two former intelligence officials and a congressional source—just the kind of anonymous leakers the White House hates—claim that during the 2016 campaign, the U.S. intercepted communications of Russian officials who discussed "having potentially 'derogatory' information about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and some of his top aides." The report continued:

One source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussion centered on whether the Russians had leverage over Trump's inner circle. The source said the intercepted communications suggested to US intelligence that Russians believed "they had the ability to influence the administration through the derogatory information."

However, the U.S. officials cautioned that the Russians could have been exaggerating or fabricating the extent of their capabilities as part of a larger disinformation campaign.

Either way, things continue to get murkier. Another report from The Washington Post traced how intelligence briefings go down in the White House. While the piece spent most of its time on the president—who likes to keep things "concise and conversational" while drinking a Diet Coke at 10:30 a.m. and prefers the inclusion of "killer graphics"—there was also a neat little tidbit about Son-in-Law-in-Chief Jared Kushner:

Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, often observes quietly; he receives his own intelligence briefing earlier in the morning, according to two White House officials. Some Democrats are now calling for Kushner's security clearance to be reviewed after The Washington Post reported Friday that he attempted to set up back-channel communications with the Russian government during the presidential transition.

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